11th February 2010 - Thats right, you read that correctly, finally after almost 15 years, Eidos and former Crystal Dynamics, along with Square Enix are releasing all the art and storyboards from the beloved character in a hefty 568 Page double edition. How much to get your hands on the raider of Tombs? $110.00 folks!
"The Art of Tomb Raider is the first book to present every significant piece of Tomb Raider art from all the games and adventures of Lara Croft. This gallery of art is presented in a two volume, 568 page book. Volume 1 chronicles Tomb Raider through Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. Volume 2 chronicles Tomb Raider: Legend through Tomb Raider: Underworld. The two volume set is house in a slipcase.
See the first ever sketches of Lara Croft by Toby Gard, unreleased concept art, storyboards and promotional art and fascinating insights into the evolution of design and visualization of all the Tomb Raider games."
Limited to ‘only’ 2000 copies world-wide, it’s one of those rare opportunities to collect something that may disappear faster than the chance of another movie. The book itself seems to follow a tradition of art books, with smaller longer pages, over the traditional A4. Personally Valves Half-Life A4 compendium was the best I’ve read, but at over 500 pages, it’s looking larger than Lara’s assets. Although specified only 2000 world-wide, many art books including the elusive Art of Oddworld can still be found and bought.
With Rumors of another Tomb Raider game, rebooted (again) and taking Ms. Croft in a new direction, there’s also a fair crack of nostalgia in this bad boy. Lara shot to fame in 1996 and hasn’t looked back.
If you’re interested in forking over the dosh, be aware that orders ship in March via priority USPS shipping but for Australian's, it will incur a whopping $84.00 shipping fee, bumping your total purchase price to around $200.
Now someone just get onto Rockstar and tell them to hurry up with the Art of GTA!
Order here via: Dream and Vision press.